Shadows In The Mirror
by P2tbAnimeGirl
Summary: Something isn't quite right with that mirror. Bart, Jaime, and Karen find out the hard way. An old urban legend retold using the characters of YJ. Written for a challenge.


Warning: Character death

A/N: I apologize for any spelling and grammar mistakes I may have missed. While I know I am not the best in this department, nobody is perfect and I am trying to improve.

Written for **Kiko'sTOY**'s Urban Legend Challenge on the YJFC forum.

Disclaimer: I do not own either Young Justice or its related characters. Such are the property of DC Comics, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

* * *

**Shadows in the Mirror**

It started with a souvenir. A mirror framed in black wood with a spider crack in the high left corner. Something about it compelled Garfield to bring it back to Mount Justice after a mission.

Soon after its arrival, Bart started to behave differently. Where he was once an open, talkative, and hyperactive speedster, he became quiet and withdrawn. He stayed in his room, often skipping meals. He complained of the cold, even though the thermostat claimed it was a comfortable setting for the rest of the base. Soon he refused to talk to anyone who came close to him. He even stopped mentioning his spoilers and choose to avoid conversation.

Everyone thought that he just needed some space. That being trapped in their time was affecting him and that he just needed time to adjust. They were wrong.

Early one morning, everyone awoke to the sound of a gunshot. Everyone ran to Bart's room to find him dead. He had stolen one of the guns confiscated from a mission and used it to shoot himself in the side of his head. It was too late to even try to save him.

A week later, after the League and the Team held the funeral, the Team drew straws to see who would clean out their teammate's room. It was a job no one wanted to do. That had cleaned out rooms of fallen teammates before, but no one had done what Impulse had.

Blue Beetle ended up drawing the short stick.

With the scarab to distract him, the task of packing everything into the boxes seemed to move rather quickly. He just tossed a bunch of stuff into each box and them tapped it shut. He didn't pay attention to what he was tossing in until he came across a reflective object.

The mirror.

"Que?" He wondered aloud as he observed the object in his hand. A mirror with a black wooden frame and a small crack in the corner. He remembered the mirror being a souvenir placed on the shelf and not in Bart's room.

"So what's it doing here?" He asked. "It is not a stupid question. You're being insensitive." He then hissed as the scarab made a comment. And with that he tossed it onto Bart's desk, deciding that he would return it to the shelf after he was done packing.

He continued on and was nearly done when he realized it hand suddenly gotten very cold in the room. At first he ignored it, but after a few minutes he was shivering.

"What's the temperature in here?" He asked the scarab.

_[Precisely sixty-five degrees.]_ Scarab responded. No different than it had been before, so why was it so cold?

Taking a moment to leave the room, he checked the thermostat to see that the scarab was correct. There was no temperature difference. Jaime then shrugged it off, figuring that it was just him adjusting to the cooler temperature of the base in comparison to El Paso.

As he walked back into Bart's room, he thought he saw, out of the corner of his eye, the reflection of some shadow in the mirror as he passed. He looked over and was puzzled by the sight. Instead of lying flat like he had left it, it was now propped up against the box on the desk.

He picked the mirror back up and observed it again. Nothing was different. No odd shadow. And the temperature had returned to normal as Jaime looked to see nothing out of the ordinary there. He shrugged as he went back to packing.

Later he would return the mirror to the shelf and not give it a second thought.

A couple of days later, the temperature dropped again. Jaime asked the scarab, only for it to tell him that nothing was different.

He continued to walk down the hall, but he thought he saw a shadow in the mirror as he passed a room. He stopped to take a look. In the reflection, a shadowy shape was behind him. He turned to see nothing there. When he looked back into the mirror and saw the shadow begin to change shape, he yelled in fright. It had taken the shape of a young teenager.

Slowly, it crawled out of the mirror in front of him. Jaime began to scream for help, to warn the others, but it was no use. No one was there to hear him. He was alone with that _thing_.

* * *

A few hours later, the rest of the team walked down the hall to discover his body. The hallway was smeared in blood and plasma cannon burns.

The League was called in immediately. But no evidence of a killer was found. Security footage of that hallway had died the moment he stepped foot in it.

A few weeks later, on a warm summer night, Karen woke up shivering. The room had suddenly become very cold. She got out of bed and walked over to the thermostat to see it was normal. She had a feeling that something was wrong, but she just shook it off and told herself that it was just a malfunction. Besides, she was too tired to think.

Karen slowly stumbled back down the hall toward her room in the cold. As she past the room, she thought she saw something in the mirror on the shelf. She went back to try to see what it was, however, in the darkened room she had trouble seeing everything. She placed her face closer to the mirror and squinted. Just when she was finally able to make something out, the room filled with light.

"Eek!," Karen yelped, almost stumbling as she jumped back. She blinked rapidly to rid her eyes of the little spots that danced in front of her. When she was able to see again, she turned around to see Mal standing in front of the switch looking tired. Wolf was at his side too.

The temperature suddenly went back to normal.

"Karen, what are you doing? It's late. I thought you went to bed already." He asked in a concerned tone.

"Sorry. I was cold and I thought I saw something in the mirror." She replied. Mal gave her a skeptical look, but walked closer to inspect the mirror nonetheless.

"I don't see anything Karen. I think you're tired; it's been a long week for you. Now go get some rest." He advised.

"Okay." She replied, not entirely convinced.

As they left the room, Mal hit the light switch off. Suddenly, Wolf started to growl.

"What is it Wolf?" Mal asked, looking back into the room. Wolf was growling at the mirror.

"Come on Wolf, there isn't anything there."

"Wait a minute Mal. Maybe he's on to something." Karen replied as Wolf continued to growl.

"It's the middle of the night. We're all tired. There's nothing there. Let's go Wolf." Mal replied. Reluctantly, Wolf stopped growling and walked down the hallway. Karen looked back at the mirror one last time herself before going back to bed.

As she lied down to sleep, she couldn't help but feel that something bad was going to happen. She prayed she was wrong and that Mal was right. That it was only nothing.

* * *

The following morning Karen was walking down the hall again. She stopped to take a look at the mirror now that it was daytime and she was fully awake.

She looked and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Just her reflection and the surrounding room. She sighed and went to continue on her way down the hall. Except something stuck out in the corner of her eye and she turned towards the mirror for a second look.

A shadow was in the mirror now. She spun around to see nothing standing behind her. When she looked back to it for the third time, she saw the shadow beginning to take the shape of something…human.

Her eyes widened when she realized what – or who, the shadow was becoming. Behind her, in the mirror, stood _Jaime_.

Jaime slowly raised his hand as though he was going to grab Karen through the mirror.

With true terror in her every thumping heartbeat, she suddenly found the strength to run. She ran to the doorway that would lead to the open hallway. Except someone was standing there now, their back turned to her. They were dressed in all black, but the red hair seemed to ring a bell in Karen's mind.

"_Oh Karen",_ she heard Jaime call after her. His voice, however, was strange. It was like a hoarse whisper and lacked the Spanish accent he'd had in life. _"Karen, there's no use in running."_

"Help!" Karen pleaded with the man in the doorway. But the person just stood there, completely ignoring her. "We need to go! The mirror it's-" Her voice died in her throat as the person turned around. Bart!

Bart quickly grabbed Karen's wrist before she could run.

"Let go!" Karen screamed as she tried to loosen Bart's grip. But he maintained an iron grip.

Bart was laughing now. "_Try to get away_," He said in a similar tone to Jaime's. "_You never will."_

Karen suddenly felt a harsh grip on her other wrist. She looked over her shoulder to see Jaime holding it tightly. She couldn't get away.

"HELP!" Karen cried out, "Someone help me!"

"_Keep screaming_," Jaime said.

"_No one will hear you_." Bart finished.

"What do you want?!" Karen cried, still struggling to get loose from their grip.

"_We don't want anything_." Bart assured her as he and Jaime began laughing. Suddenly, the temperature dropped once more. Karen looked back behind her at the mirror. She let out another terrified scream as a shadow-thing slowly came crawling out of the mirror.

"_He on the other hand_," Jaime mentioned as Karen began screaming again as the shadow came closer.

"Help! Help! Somebody! Anybody! HELP!"

Jaime and Bart laughed at her fear as the shadow continued to creep closer.

Karen closed her eyes as the shadow came closer and closer. She opened her mouth and screamed one last time…

* * *

Everyone screamed when they found Karen's body drenched in fresh blood. The mystery killer had struck once more. Again there was no evidence. There wasn't any security footage either.

But this time they were shocked to see the dark hand shaped bruises on both of her wrists.

The case remained open along with Jaime's, but no killer was found.

A week passed before the temperature dropped once more...


End file.
